SiC has relatively high thermal conductivity, high electric field breakdown strength, high maximum current density, and a high sublimation point. As a result, SiC is often used as a semiconductor material in applications requiring high speed, high temperature, high voltage, high current, high power, the like, or any combination thereof. However, performance of high voltage, high current SiC semiconductor devices, such as SiC PIN diodes, SiC BJTs, and SiC insulated gate junction devices, may be limited by a relatively low carrier lifetime of N-type and P-type epitaxial layers in the high voltage, high current SiC semiconductor devices. The low carrier lifetime may result in a high ON state resistance of a SiC semiconductor device, thereby causing a relatively high voltage drop across the SiC semiconductor device, which causes a relatively high conduction power loss of the SiC semiconductor device. Epitaxial growth techniques used to increase carrier lifetimes, such as lower temperature growth or a lower silicon-to-carbon ratio, typically result in higher defect densities in the epitaxial layers, thereby making high voltage, high current SiC semiconductor devices impractical. As such, there is a need for a high voltage, high current SiC semiconductor device having a relatively high carrier lifetime of N-type and P-type epitaxial layers in the high voltage, high current SiC semiconductor device.